The Nazi Party:
Nazi Propagnda Tactics

(May 1930)

The following is excerpted from a report issued by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior in May 1930:

... The rapid and steady growth of the National Socialist
movement is due primarily to the catastrophic worsening of the economic
condition of large segments of the population. Gaining more adherents
is the perception that only a fundamentally different political and
economic basis can check this development. Since the economic situation
is the result of the lost war and its financial ramifications, the propaganda
of the National Socialists is gaining more and more support. They call
for a fundamental elimination of the "tribute obligations"
to foreign countries and want to reach this goal by changing the domestic
political power relationships in favor of a National Socialist regime
in the form of a "third Reich." It is primarily economic despair
that is winning followers for National Socialism because these groups
see a radical change as their only hope. ...

It is noteworthy that the majority of the supporters of National Socialism
come especially from those segments of the population which have been
hardest hit by the present economic distress. Included are, on the one
hand, those who have been affected by the misery of the agricultural
situation as well as, on the other hand, the gradually slipping middle
class comprised of small scale businessmen in small towns which has
suffered from the high cost of credit and the competition of large businesses.
Included too are salaried personnel who have already lost their jobs,
or for whom unemployment threatens. And finally also included is the
new, young academic talent - that is, students and university scholars
who because of the economic situation have lost all hope of making a
living in the future. Added to this lately is a not inconsiderable number
of lower-and middle-ranking officials, especially from administrative
offices ... such as the postal service, the railroad administration,
the revenue service, as well as from the ranks of teachers. In contrast
to the working class, which in this situation tends more toward communism,
these groups are seeking to avoid at all cost sinking to the level of
the "proletariat," and consequently see their salvation embodied
by the other, "non-Marxist" radicalism - National Socialism.
...

Added to this is the important factor of the type and scope of the party's
propaganda. Selected districts are veritably inundated and worked-over
with propaganda operations consisting of methodically and skillfully
prepared written and verbal appeals as well as schedule of meetings,
all of which in terms of sheer activity cannot in the least be matched
by any other party or political movement.

Hardly a day passes when there are not several meetings held in even
very narrowly defined local areas. Carefully organized propaganda headquarters
in the individual districts see to it that speakers and topics are in
tune with local conditions and economic circumstances. The party's Reichstag
and Landtag [regional parliament] delegates as well as a great number
of other party speakers are on the road continually, developing and
expanding these agitation tactics. Through systematic training courses,
correspondence courses, and recently through the NSDAP speaker-training
school established on July 1, 1929, such agitators are training for
this task over a period of months and even years. If they prove to be
qualified they receive official recognition from the party and are given
a contract to give at least thirty speeches during an eight-month period,
for which they are granted an incentive fee of 20 Reichsmark per evening
in addition to expenses.

Rhetorical skills are combined with lecture topics carefully selected
to suit the particular audience, which in the rural areas and in small
towns is mainly interested in economic matters. This, according to our
observations, ensures that meeting halls are almost invariably overcrowded
with approving listeners. Meetings with an audience of between one thousand
and five thousand people are a daily occurrence in the bigger cities.
...

At these events the government's entire internal and foreign policy
is attacked in a demagogical style that does not shy away even from
falsification, distortion, and slander. They are abusive and contemptuous
of the government and blame it for the economic crisis. ...

This propaganda is backed up almost everywhere by the simultaneous appearance
of SA people, who, on bicycles or on trucks - some belonging to the
party - go to the individual meetings in an area and merely through
being there give a speaker considerable support, help fill the hall
itself, act as a protective force for the meeting, and in the end also
act as a coercive force in that they allow no one to interject or contradict
the speaker, which more or less makes it impossible for anyone to make
counter arguments. By their public appearance they directly and indirectly
help advertise the meeting, and thereby support the speaker's propaganda,
entice sympathizers and the curious, and ultimately through their organization
of parades in uniform they win supporters locally, primarily from among
the younger generation.

On such occasions the network of local groups is expanded as far as
possible, or at least trusted individuals are recruited in order to
lay the groundwork for the expansion of the movement through intensive,
pervasive, word-of-mouth propaganda. Frequently such propaganda squads
remain in a certain place for several days and attempt to inspire support
for the Party from the local population by staging a variety of events
such as concerts, sports festivals, military marching spectacles, as
well as even closed-rank church attendance in suitable towns. In other
towns a propaganda speaker from elsewhere will be stationed for a certain
length of time; with a car at his disposal, he will then systematically
travel through the surrounding area. National Socialist theater groups
also travel from town to town, serving the same purpose. ....